Essential Skills Literacy Training:
Tools for Older Adults Project

Information About The Project

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Background

Consultations with literacy council representatives across Newfoundland and Labrador identified a gap in service provision for today's adult learner. In the past few years, Newfoundland and Labrador Laubach Literacy Council Inc. (NLLLC) has seen the average age of the learner change from those in their 20's to those in their 40's and beyond. In addition, this is a time when the province is experiencing environmental changes where older workers are being called upon to fill gaps in the labour market left by a diminishing workforce. As the demand for workforce participation by older workers increases, NLLLC anticipates a growing need for literacy services to address essential skill development and workforce literacy of older adults.

To achieve its goal of meeting this literacy challenge and to address the identified gap in service provision, NLLLC aims to develop an essential skills training package which includes a trainer manual, tutor handbook and learning modules which will be added as a core component to tutor resources and training and distributed to stakeholders across the country. The end product will help literacy practitioners better support older learners who want to improve and enhance essential skills and workplace literacy.

Undertaken as a partnership initiative, this project will have a number of participating stakeholders including the Community Education Network, the Employment Preparation Centre, the Rural Secretariat, the Department of Innovation Trade and Rural Development, the Greater Corner Brook Board of Trade and the College of the North Atlantic. Partners will provide guidance and support for the project as members of a project steering committee.

The project is expected to benefit the business community by providing a service that can help older workers make an easier transition to a new workforce or adapt to changing technology on the job. The project will also increase awareness of the importance of essential skills in literacy programming and in the workplace. Also, the consultation process will provide a forum for businesses and industry in the province who are interested in hiring older workers to identify essential skill needs which can be addressed in the materials developed through this project.

Information on Essential Skills

The Government of Canada describes Essential Skills as the fundamental skills that make it possible to learn all others. They are enabling skills that help people participate fully in the workplace and in the community. The nine essential skills are:

1. Reading: understanding materials written in sentences or paragraphs
2. Document Use: using and understanding labels, graphs, signs, forms,etc.
3. Numeracy: using and understanding numbers
4. Writing: writing text or typing on a computer
5. Oral Communication: using speech to share thought and information
6. Working with Others: working with others to complete tasks
7. Computer Use: using computers and other technical tools
8. Continuous Learning: participating in an ongoing process of gaining skills and knowledge (e.g. workplace training)
9. Thinking Skills: reviewing information to make decisions.

www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/workplaceskills/essential_skills/
general/home.shtml

This project is funded by HRSDC through the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills.

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